AVATRAIT – This weekend saw the opening of an exhibition by Shoshana Epsilon at the Avatrait Gallery – an exhibition that shows a more vulnerable side of the experienced photographer.

”Some of these pictures explore emotions; strong emotions like death and love, hope and fear,” Epsilon said. ”Although I’ve always attempted to capture emotions in my models, I haven’t searched out the really strong ones. I recently went through a period of depression, and decided to use that as an opportunity to explore my feelings. It was quite cathartic, and part of the healing process.”

Epsilon won’t admit she’s a particularly serious person. ”No, I’m just reserved. I don’t often let my emotions show. But for this show, I realised I needed to do something unusual. I tried to touch some of those vulnerable places.”

A picture called ”Small Comfort” shows her sitting in utter darkness with a cat in her lap. ”That was a dark day. I just wanted to curl up and cry. So I took pictures instead. Windlight, black skin, dark hair, prim cat,” Epsilon explained.

Then, there’s one called ”Whimsical”, showing her dancing happily in a winter forest with Christmas lights blinking around her. ”I wanted to show I’m not all that serious and stuff.”

All the pictures in the exhibition are taken during the last six months. Epsilon says she had 150 pictures to choose from, and then cut it down to 30. ”But Track Hax, the owner of Avatrait, cut it even further – to 21. Ouch! It felt as if my children had been ripped from me.” That said, Epsilon credits Hax for encouraging her to push her limits.

Epsilon has been a resident in Second Life since September 2005. She got seriously into art photography in February 2006. Within a few weeks, it was obvious that this was a passion of hers, and she started a business as a portrait photographer. She was invited to participate in SL3B, SL’s third birthday, and curated SL4B.

Together with CodeRed Bastard and Stephen Venkman, she will be curating SL5B in June. Epsilon has also been featured in Le Monde’s online magazine and been a featured artist at University of Texas at Dallas. She’s been a magazine photographer too but, ”frankly, that was too much work. I enjoyed meeting all those people but the deadlines were a killer,” she laughed.

Taking photographs in SL made